SI does not hire High school interns
by BIRDSdon'tBUZZ
Summary: After a ton of work Peter's Internship is real...too bad no one believes him. AKA, peter gets called to the front office to discuss his 'fake' internship. (Might do a second chapter of a field trip fic if yall don't bail out before finishing this so if this ever has a second chapter made yall know what it is)
1. Chapter 1

OKAY! So Heads up I may or may not do a second chapter or more but I almost never finish anything! I just felt like I wanted to write and this is what I did. Not sure if it should be in Avengers or Spiderman, but I'm thinking no one is gonna care! Good luck have fun, no dying!

The day Peter got his official clearance as an SI intern was one of the best days of his life. Of course, Peter had already had clearance, even higher than an intern before it officially got put into the system but it was super cool of Mr. Stark to actually make their cover up true. Peter figured it was mostly because it was the easiest way to explain to the Mayor (and the Government) why a teenager was working on such advanced tech with the Tony Stark, but it was still cool.

Even with the impromptu meeting with the Mayor Mr. Stark had insisted Peter had earned the title of his personal intern all by himself, but

Peter still felt a little false. The whole reason they had met with the Mayor was only that Peter had found an old discarded force shield design on Mr. Stark's database that was just a few calculations away from functioning and fixed it, leaving a note that it could be installed at Schools and Hospitals to be activated in case of emergency (read: in case of another alien invasion). But all Peter had done was make a few minor edits to the power intake and the structure of the force field- it wasn't anything too impressive, and Peter was sure Mr. Stark could have fixed it in half the time if he had looked back at the old project, no matter how impressed the man had seemed.

However, it had been FRIDAY who had seen the note Peter had made and forwarded it along to Ms. Potts and she had called the Mayor and the Governor and a bunch of men in suits who Peter was sure were very important people. The problem was Pepper had assumed it was Mr. Stark who had made the note (on his private server) and apparently little notes like this often meant Mr. Stark was ready to give a presentation on the subject. But since it was Peter who had written the note, it had basically turned into a huge last-minute scramble in which Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts, and Peter had less than ten minutes to get ready to pitch a 10 billion dollar project to some of the most important people in the US. They nailed it though, with Peter taking the lead. In the end, it was agreed the force fields would be installed not only at schools and hospitals in New York but in DC and several other cities too. The project went from 10 Billion to nearly ten times that in less than an hour and when all the people in suits left the trio all high-fived, Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark kissed and then Mr. Stark ruffled his hair and told him he did good. It was the best. It was only then as the high wore off that Peter realized he had been introduced as 'The genius prodigy child Mr. Stark discovered' and 'Mr. Stark's personal intern'. WTF.

Mr. Stark went and made it official the next day. Peter was a real SI intern, just like that. Even though SI did not take High school interns, and even though Peter had never even met the other SI interns, but according to Mr. Stark it 'was a long time coming'. And yeah, as Peter found out being an official intern was not really any different than what he was doing before, other than he was now supposed to clock in and out and keep track of his hours. He still came almost every day after school, still worked with Mr. Stark on amazing tech and his spidey suit, and still had time to work on his own stuff and learn using Mr. Starks database full of scientific discoveries and top-notch papers.

He had gotten more responsibilities lately though, more trust. Like Mr. Stark let him work on the War Machine armor doing routine repairs and even once his own armor with the newest nanotech. Mr. Stark had seemed surprised how well Peter understood the technology his newest armor was made out of, but Peter had read all the information on the servers on it, so why shouldn't he understand it? He may not be as smart as Mr. Stark, but he had spent like a whole weekend on that one subject in the database, he had no idea why him understanding it in the lab earned him so much praise. Oh well, Peter liked the praise anyway.

The coolest thing he got to do with his new job was to help plan out the labs in the new Stark tower. The New stark tower, was really just the old one, but it had needed to be heavily renovated to once again become SI headquarters. Mr. Stark had planned to move SI and sell the building, but after the whole Vulture thing in which Peter and Mr. Stark became close, the deal had fallen through as apparently no insurance company in the world would insure the building for the new owners. Mr. Stark had just laughed, shook his head, and reclaimed the building, telling Peter that he wanted him to design the layout and the utility of many of the labs for SI.

Needless to say, Peter was in heaven and took to his duty like a duck to water. He gathered information, talked to some of the SI scientists, and did lots of research on the best tech to stock the labs with. There were a few machines though he found were a bit out of date or took up more room than they needed, so he may have redesigned a few (read: more than half of them) to save space or combine machines, or make then more powerful. Peter was really only thinking of lab space and utility, but Mr. Stark had been over the moon about it and told Peter he was going to use the new designed machines in his own lab. But again, it was not like Peter did anything new- nothing like the Arc reactor level or anything, all he did was make a few things a little bit better, that's all. He did also help Mr. Stark figure out how to use his old armors to help the construction teams, but again he only helped a little anyone with basic knowledge of architecture, construction, and advanced computer coding could of done it, even if Ms. Potts took him out to lunch at a place that didn't list the prices on the menu as thanks for 'getting the place put back together in less than a month'.

Anyway, Peter had officially been an SI intern for about three months. Three amazing epic months of working with Mr. Stark and being a part-time superhero, and just having a blast when one afternoon May called him into the kitchen before family dinner night and handed him a packet of papers.

"Huh, what's this?" Peter asked

May frowned. "It's from your school Peter, they need you to fill these out to verify your internship. Although I thought you handled this months ago. You better have been keeping track of your hours to get credit, for all Stark has abused your time."

Peter grinned as the now old argument came up, May always insisting Mr. Stark was monopolizing his time and how Peter should be out having fun and not working in a lab or fighting crime. But she always said it with a smile and Peter knew she was really proud of him and was only half serious about her complaints. "Maaayyyy, Mr. Stark doesn't abuse my time, I just love being there, especially since I got my own lab at the tower!"

May just grumbled to herself about something Peter made an effort not to hear and made Peter take the papers. "Just make sure you get these filled out and have Stark sign them and get them back to your school. By the note, I got they apparently tried to send a similar packet to SI and never got it back."

Peter hummed as he looked through the papers, "Well it's not like they get too many high schools sending them mail about high schoolers... it was probably just a mix-up, but I thought that someone from HR had handled this. Huh. Oh, well." Peter didn't think much of it just filled out the papers before dinner, it was not like he was really doing this for class credit, the next day he had Mr. Stark sign his part, got his hours he had already logged, and finally the day after he dropped the paperwork off at the front office of his school as he munched a power bar breakfast.

He really didn't think about it again during the next week, not that his school work was very hard, but at SI Peter was working on a cool project for a medical machine that could - 'PETER PARKER TO THE PRINCIPALS OFFICE, PETER PARKER TO THE OFFICE' Peter jumped hearing his name over the schools' intercom system. Had he zoned out again? There were a few students who giggled and 'OOOhhhhh'd' in the 'your-in-trouble' kind of way and he just smiled and shook his head, gathered up his things and took the hall pass his English teacher wrote up Peter walked out thanking the universe Flash was not in his English class and wondering what in the world he was being called to the principal's office for.

When he got there the Principal, Mr. Morita, was whisper talking to Peter's guidance counselor. Of course, since Peter had advanced hearing he clearly heard every word.

"No, no, no- He's a good kid," Mr. Morita spoke in hushed tones, "Suspension will be enough if he comes clean-"

"He had it on his resume, you know lying about credentials is a federal offense. He's probably already sent out college applications with it!" his guidance counselor replied. This. Could not be good. It was then Peter got a deep sinking feeling in his gut and took the moment to let out a cough and did his best to signal Mr. Morita to let him know he was there and ready.

"Peter! Ah!" Mr. Morita said gently sending the man he was talking to away and walking across the room to Peter. "Just the young man I need to talk to, please come with me into my office." Peter did. He followed Mr. Morita into his office and sat down awkwardly in front of the man's desk in a chair that was both an awful shade of yellow and uncomfortable to sit in. Mr. Morita shuffled papers around for a minute making Peter fidget nervously before finally sitting with his hands clasped in front of him and taking a big breath.

"Do you know why I called you in here today Peter?" He asked.

"Ahh.. No?" Peter replied sounding more like a question than an answer. He really had no idea why he was here.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling Sir? I really have no idea why I'm down here." Could it have anything to do with his paperwork? Did he fill it out right? No, then he would be talking with someone else. Right? Surely some misfilled out paperwork did not mean a talk with Mr. Morita?

"Ah, I see." Mr. Morita sighed as he frowned and passed Peter a very familiar packet of papers. So this WAS about his internship. But this didn't feel like a happy congratulations meeting...it felt like he was in trouble. "Do you know what these are Peter?"

"Yeeesss?" Peter half questioned again, "They are my internship papers. I handed them in like a week ago? Is there something wrong with the paperwork?"

"No, Peter," Mr. Morita sighed again, " Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, you're a smart kid Peter, top of your class, Ace of the Decathlon team, you have to have known submitting false paperwork is against the rules."

"I...what?" Now Peter was confused.

"Now lying to your classmates may be tolerable, but by sending the email impersonating a Stark Industry employee and now by submitting paperwork documenting a fake internship with a faulty signature, I have no choice but to intervene."

Peter was stunned. They thought his internship was fake? What email were they talking about? How had this happened? Apparently, though Mr. Morita took his gaping silence as an admission of guilt.

"I know what it's like, so much pressure on you teens to do good in school, so much competition between the students to look better than the others. Now I was willing to ignore the rumor floating around that you had an internship at Stark Industries, I was even willing to ignore it when I got a written complaint from Young Mr. Thompson. But I cannot ignore this lie any longer. Not now that you have broken a few laws by turning in this paperwork." Mr. Morita looked upset, but this time he clearly expecting Peter to respond.

"Y-you think I lied about my internship?" Peter squeaked out.

Mr. Morita closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We know it's fake Peter. When your rumor first surfaced I did a little digging, called Stark Industries, and it turned out they don't accept High school age interns. Now I didn't want to ruin your high school experience at the time, but now I know I should have talked to you then before the fake email you sent trying to convince us that your internship was real."

"It must have been HR that sent that email, Mr. Morita. I'm a special case Sir, I really-" but Peter was cut off.

"Do you think this is fun for me Peter? Calling you in here, being the bad guy?"

"No, Sir, but-"

"Then just come clean, Peter. If you come clean I don't have to get the authorities involved."

"Authorities!?" Peter squeaked again. This was bad, bad, bad, bad. "But my internships real!"

"No Peter it's not. We tried. Oh we tried to get in contact with Stark

Industries. We sent emails, that were just bounced back, we sent in the standard paperwork for confirming an internship and do you know what response we got from Stark Industries?"

"No?" Peter fidgeted in his seat. How did he end up here?

"We were told over and over again that Stark Industries did not hire High school Interns, In fact, they only take a handful of College age ones a year, and the receptionist I reach read me the list, and you are not on it. I had hoped your aunt would set the matter straight when she realized she had received paperwork for an internship you did not have, but unfortunately, this now falls to me." Mr. Morita then started typing on his computer.

"Now I'm starting with an email home, we will need your Aunt to sign a few things saying she understands what has happened here." Mr. Morita turned back to Peter, "This is the part where you tell the truth, Peter. I can understand a lie getting too big, your young, you make mistakes. But you have to own up to it now or I will have to expel you and a police investigation will be opened, we do not tolerate things like this here at this school."

Peter was panicking at this point, mind working a mile a minute. He had only officially been on the record at SI for a few months, the school had probably called and asked long before that, and really technically SI still did not hire high school interns, this was all just a mistake. But how to tell Mr. Morita that?! Peter took a calming breath and tried anyway. "Mr. Morita, this has all been a huge misunderstanding."

Mr. Morited clasped his hands again and faced Peter with a raised eyebrow. "Please then Peter, explain to me what I have misunderstood."

Peter's jaw just worked for a second while his brain worked for a way to explain. "It's true that SI doesn't normally hire High school Interns, Mr. Morita, but I was not hired under normal circumstances and only recently was I put officially on the books. I'm sure if you called asking the right questions someone could confirm-"

"Mr. Parker, please do not make me the bad guy here-"

"No Sir! You don't understand! I see you don't believe me but my internship is really real!"

"ENOUGH MR. PARKER!" Mr. Morita all but yelled from across his desk. "I have tried to get you to drop this fabrication, but now I will have to report you to the authorities for submitting false internship paperwork with a fake signature on it, along with impersonating someone through email."

By this point, Peter decided the only way Mr. Morita was going to believe him was to talk to Mr. Stark himself. Peter was fishing out his phone, and opening his contacts in seconds now ignoring his Principal who was clearly uninterested in his side of the truth. He normally knew better than to call Mr. Stark in the middle of the day, Mr. Stark was very busy, but he also knew if he was available he would pick up and just explain the situation to Mr. Morita. "Please Sir, " Peter says handing over the phone, "Just call Mr. Stark"

Mr. Morita looked a bit mad and highly skeptical at the prospect that Peter had Mr. Stark's phone number (Peter still could not believe it himself) and it probably did not help his case that the number was listed under 'THE Tony Stark :D' but Mr. Morita did hit the dial button and the phone did ring. And ring. And ring. And Mr. Stark never picked up. There was no prerecorded message either. Mr. Stark kept it that way because anyone who was calling the number knew it was him and that FRIDAY would relay any messages to him if needed. There was however a 'beep' that signaled to start leaving a message.

And boy, did Mr. Morita ever leave a message.

"Hello 'Mr. Stark', " He started, "or should I say Peter's friend. This is Principal Morita calling from my office where I have Peter sitting right in front of me. I regret to inform you but this charade has not helped your friend at all. In fact, I am now quite cross, and once I match this number to the school database of student numbers I will be assigning you detention. Have a good day." And the man hung up. Crap. Mr. Stark was going to hear that! FRIDAY was probably replaying the message now! Peter's face paled. OMG. Mr. Morita just threated TONY STARK with detention! Crap again.

When Mr. Morita hung up he didn't look mad anymore, just disappointed™. It started to irk Peter that he was so sure everything was a lie. Like the school never lost paperwork or didn't answer a call the first time. Gosh. Now, Peter was still a little worked up, but he was calming down and he was smart, he knew that nothing would come from any investigation and the situation would all work out in the end because he WAS an SI intern. His Principal had just never heard of innocent until proven guilty or whatever, it would all be well in the end. But just the insanity of the situation put Peter into a funk. He had not been given the benefit of the doubt and now not only was Mr. Stark bothered but now Mr. Morita was calling his Aunts to work for her to come to pick him up. May would not be happy to be called away from her job for this stupid mess.

He had made Peter sit in front of him while he called his Aunt's work too, and when he wrote out several emails. One to his aunt, one to guidance, and finally one to the 'authorities' as he promised. All while reading his letters out loud like he was trying to teach Peter a lesson. Of course any more 'explaining' Peter tried to do was quickly silenced and reprimanded. Peter was just left to stew in his now fowl emotional state. By the time the front Desk called into the office that 'someone' was here for Peter, he was full of teenage mood and was way over a little bit bitter at Mr. Morita and the school.

To make it worse Mr. Morita had all but pulled Peter out of the room and held him by the arm like he was going to bolt as soon as his aunt came around the corner. Honestly, Peter just wanted Aunt May to clear this up so he could still get to lunch and she could get back to work. But, this is was Peter Parkers life™, and the person who came around the corner was not May Parker.

It was Tony Stark.

It was Tony Stark in the flesh, $10,000 suit and all, and looking very, very pissed. It was then Mr. Stark locked eyes with Peter making sure he was okay before his yes traced to Mr. Morita's hand holding him in place. Mr. Stark had apparently not like the situation at all because THAT was when Mr. Stark brought out his scary face. The face he had used to face down criminals and corrupt politicians, and friends as they betrayed him. The look that left people awake at night and left them frozen in the spot with the knowledge that they were going to regret ever waking up that morning (and sometimes being born).

Peter was a good person, really he was, but he was not nearly good enough not to feel a bitter glee at the shock on Mr. Morita's and then a darker joy at the horror that appeared there as Mr. Stark stalked over and crossly removed Mr. Morita's hand from Peter's body and replaced it with his own gentler one moving Peter to his side.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Mr. Stark growled, stepping protectively between Peter and Mr. Morita. And yup. Mr. Morita was frozen to the spot, mouth stuck open in horror. Not moving anytime soon. So it was up to Peter to answer.

"The school thought my internship was fake," Peter explained, "Because SI does not hire High school interns and when I submitted my internship paperwork they thought I faked it and forged your signature." Easy answer, nothing but the truth, and if he wanted to school to get into a little bit of trouble, well he would think on that later.

The look of ' I do not have time for this ' Mr. Stark gave Mr. Morita was what finally snapped the man out of his stupor.

"Mr. Stark, Sir I- the school did everything we could to- we looked into his internship! Every email we sent was sent back, every phone call told us no, even our mail was not returned. We were told Stark Industries does not hire high school interns. We had every reason to suspect Mr. Parker was lying-"

"Suspect?!" Mr. Stark barked "Suspect?! Well, why didn't you just ask him?! He is SI's ONLY High school intern, heck he's MY PERSONAL intern, he could have told you his hiring was not traditional and who to contact to prove his internship real. I was in a meeting with 15 US governers! So why the fuck did I get a phone call in the middle telling ME I'm going to get detention?!"

Oh, Mr. Morita's face. His face, when he realized he had threated Tony Stark with detention, yes, that was also very enjoyable and he may have had to smother a small smile before it came to his lips. At least Peter was a good enough person not to point out that he had tried to explain the situation of his internship only to be ignored. Peter was not sure of many things in his life, but right now he was sure Mr. Stark would sue the school for everything they had if Peter gave the go. But Peter didn't want to sue his school, he liked his school, he just wanted to watch his Principal try and aplogize a little.

But Mr. Morita did not apologize a little, he did it a lot. To Peter, to Mr. Stark, to the staff. He took back his emails and told them he would write out a formal apology and promised to get to the bottom of just how this misunderstanding had happened. Mr. Stark was still in it for his pound of flesh, but at this point, Peter kinda just wanted to sneak off to lunch.

To add insult to injury, it was then when May Parker arrived. Fresh from her job, and a terrible bus ride and also very, very pissed. The joy was gone now as Peter watched May stalk over to Mr. Morita ready to did him an early grave, now he just felt sorry for the man, who was doing his best to apologize as he sweated profusely.

Peter never made it to lunch that day, he had also never seen someone apologize so much in one day. He was however allowed to go home early (or in this case to Stark tower early) and obviously got his internship recognized by the school. Mr. Stark officially became an emergency contact for Peter at the school too, with May there they could make it official real quick. Probably helped that the school just wanted this day over as much as Peter did. It was kind of cool though, Peter didn't know who was more terrifying, Iron man or his Aunt. Peter did have to admit it was kind of nice, having them both there fighting for him, even if by the end it was a bit embarrassing and over the top, and even if everyone did have to sign NDAs not to share how much the Tony Stark fussed over some high school kid.


	2. Chapter 2

Alright! Here's the second bit! Peter never really makes it past the SI lobby on his field trip...I tried but somewhere between my head and my fingers the plot warped and twisted until it was unrecognizable...sorry ahead of time for mistakes, it's late and im only .5% awake...I hope this is what people like...

Perhaps the NDAs had not been a good idea in the long run, because when the New Stark Tower opened for school tours Mr. Harrington signed the Honors Chem class and the Advanced Robotics class up for a tour. Not knowing Peter was an intern there of course. Apparently, only upper-level faculty were told of the internship fact due to the NDAs. So now on a Tuesday afternoon, Peter Parker was sitting in Chem class being passed back a permission slip to go to the same tower he worked at. Great. Not that he didn't want to go on a field trip, field trips were (normally) great, anything beat a day in class. Buuuuuttt...signing this slip was just asking for trouble.

To make things worse Flash was across the room sneering at him and whispering to his buddies. Due to his alter ego being a secret Peter had to pretend he couldn't hear him, but with his super hearing, he could even if he wished otherwise. From across the room, Peter could hear that Flash was continuing on about how 'fake' Peter's internship was and how 'this' was going to prove everything. Ug. Peter could not wait to prove him otherwise. It was then Flash caught Peter's eye and gave him a sneer and mouthed 'your dead'. Peter just shook his head and frowned looking away to hand the rest of the permission slips back to his best friend Ned. Luckily no matter how jerkish Flash was, Ned always made up for it in epicness.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" Ned squealed, "WE'RE GOING TO STARK TOWER!" Good ol'Ned.

"I brought you there once already, don't you remember?" Peter asked through a smile as he turned in his seat. Maybe a field trip wouldn't be so bad with Ned and MJ there?

"But that was just when it was being renovated!" Ned gasped "I didn't actually get to see a functioning lab, or even meet anyone cool!" Ned looked thoughtful for a second before saying more. "Hey, do you think we'll meet Tony Stark on the tour!?"

Peter shook his head. "Naw, Mr. Stark is like super busy lately, and plus he never has anything to do with the tours. Plus this is for next week, and I'm like 90% sure that Mr. Stark will still be in Washington DC then finalizing what buildings to install the new Stark Force Feilds at."

Ned's eyes got big. "That's the project you helped on right?! That's so cool! Hey, wait a minute, shouldn't you be there with him? Cause, ya' know, you made it possible and all?"

Peter rolled his eyes a bit. "I only fixed an old design and helped pitch it in the first place, since it was kinda my fault the whole thing was last minute. We were just lucky that once they saw how well the shields worked and a trained monkey could have sold it to them."

"Still dude. What if you could've met the president?"

Peter giggled and was about to say more, but their teacher had signaled for attention going on a small rant about how 'lucky' the school was for being able to go on this tour and how to act and when to turn in their signed slips. This small rant didn't stop Ned from whispering questions in Peter's ear about everything from 'will the Avengers be there' to 'what floor at the tower has the coolest bathroom?'. Peter wrote down his answers and discreetly passed the note back to Ned, only to receive two notes back. One from Ned and one from MJ who sat behind him. This. Was going to be a long week.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Peter was right. It had been a long week.

Ned, and surprisingly, MJ's questions were the least of his worries. Ned's quick-fire questions ended after a few days and thankfully MJ asked sparingly few. But Peter did make an effort to answer all of them for his friends:

'So the other Avengers won't be there?'

'No. Stark tower is home to SI, the Avengers will all be upstate at the compound. They would have no reason to come to SI, and would probably avoid the tour even if they did.'

'Will we see the Iron man armor?'

'Nope. The tour runs through the lower labs of the tower, mostly through the ones doing stuff like clean energy research and making machines to clean drinking water, but ya' know still cool stuff.'

'Will we be able to spend the night?! You know, like those sleepover tours at the museum?!'

'No, Ned. It's a four-hour tour with lunch in the middle. But there will be like activities and stuff I think...'

'Do you know who will be leading the tours? Will it be another intern?'

'SI has tour guides ya' know. I'm sure the other interns have stuff to do- and no I barely know any of them and I've never met any of the tour guides.'

'Duuudee! You're like making sure they're not doing any spider based experiments, this time right?'

'...'

'Will we see Ms. Potts? I read somewhere she use to greet tour groups during the old tours'

'Thank you, MJ for a valid question! Yes, Ms. Potts often steps in to say hi to tour groups if she has the time, but like with what's going on right now and Tony in DC she probably will not have the time, sorry.'

Having May sign his permission slip was also a bit bothersome. May asking him again and again if he just wanted to take the day off. Telling him he did not sound that excited about it. While Peter worked at the tower, he had never been on the tour, and he told May he definitely wanted to go, it was just that this week was a bit harsh. It's saying something that the candy she pulls out of nowhere for him is the highlight of the week.

Mr. Stark actually just asked him right out of the blue if he was excited about the tour. FRIDAY with her all-knowing presence had notified him of the tour and of Peter going on it. Peter told him the truth, yes he was excited about the tour, but there were one or two classmates he was afraid would tarnish the day. He didn't tell Mr. Stark about Flash and the bullying, Peter could handle himself, but Mr. Stark did promise to tell the tour guides to watch out for trouble makers. Peter also confirmed that Mr. Stark would be out of town and he had not planned anything 'special' for this tour giving Peter a strange mix of relief and regret that Mr. Stark would not be there for it.

But what made his week really sucky was one Flash Thompson. Flash had never been nice to Peter, or even just remotely tolerable- but during the week upleading to the field trip, he was just plain nasty. He would make an effort to seek Peter out after classes, at lunch, and even in the library to call Peter names and voice his opinions about Peter and his 'lies'. His whole argument being if SI didn't hire Flash there was no way they would hire Penis Parker. Which didn't even make any sense because Peter highly doubts his bully even tried to submit for an internship. Somehow it still got to Peter a bit. He knew Flash did not deserve and SI internship, but Peter was now officially taking up an intern position at SI and some other college student out there would not get hired because of him. Luckily he almost always had either Ned or MJ with him and they were prompt to inform him Flash is nothing but an asehole bully and no one deserved the internship spot more than him.

Flash also bragged over and over again about how HE was much more likely to ever meet Tony Stark because Flash's Father's company was 'definitely' going to get the New York contract for installing the newest Stark tech into schools and hospitals. Flash was just lucky Peter was not a petty person by nature or he would have told Mr. Stark to pick another company for the contract.

Mr. Harrington about mid-week made a new announcement proclaiming he had received word that SI had zero tolerance for any mischief, rulebreaking, bullying, and shenanigans during tours and repeated he did not want anyone to cause any trouble or they would all have to leave the tour early if he didn't find a chaperone. Peter knew this was because of what he had told Mr. Stark, but apparently Flash took it otherwise. Mysteriously an email from an unknown account also ended up in the inboxes of all the students going on the field trip (there was a lot of overlap between the two advanced classes so the total number of kids ended up at about 20) explaining that Peter's internship was fake, and how they should get him kicked off the tour before he ruined the day for all of them at SI. Peter didn't know this at the time though, because he nor Ned and MJ received this email and it was not till later he found out. But he had noticed an increased hostility towards himself the closer the tour got. One girl even going as far as to tell him to 'come clean' so that his field trip spot could be given to her friend instead. Peter had not known what to say, but luckily MJ had and the girl went away nearly in tears.

Yes. It had been a LONG week.

But finally, FINALLY the day of the field trip had come and Peter was for once this week in a good mood. Flash wouldn't be able to do anything at SI and now he just had to get through a bus ride with him and he would be home free. Peter walked up to the crowd around the bus with Ned beside him. They were having a very animated discussion about putting Pokemon in their next Dungeons and Dragons campaign when Mr. Harrington yelled for attention.

"Hello everyone! Are you excited?!" Mr. Harrington shouted to the crowd of students with enthusiasm. What he got back was sleepy cries of 'um..yeah's and a few mild 'yesss's. He went on though in the same tone of voice. "Alright! When I start to call names please line up and board the bus- I don't care where you sit and you can change seats on the way back, but we will be changing busses, so no leaving anything behind!"

A few boys to Peter's left giggled about something that sounded like 'we should leave Parker behind'. But Peter really only started to listen when he heard something that sounded like his name, so he gave the boys the benefit of doubt and continued to listen as Mr. Harrington gestured to a lady standing near Flash.

"This is Mrs. Thompson everyone, say Hi!" Once again he got a very mild reply. Peter said nothing because the sinking feeling in his gut was quickly stealing his good mood. "She was nice enough to volunteer her time today to chaperone our trip. She is here to make sure everyone behaves, anyone caught disobeying her or causing trouble at SI will wait down in the lobby with her until the tour is over and will be getting detention after school!"

Flash looked too smug about this, purposefully grinning at him during the whole spiel. Peter awkwardly adjusted his grip on his bag and did his best to ignore Flash and get on the bus. They were getting on Alphabetically, so MJ got on before Peter and then Ned shortly after her. Ned was planning on sitting with Peter, but he liked the aisle seat, so in a practiced maneuver he would sit with MJ first then switch seats to be on the outside of Peter once he got on, leaving MJ with an empty seat the way she liked. They had done it smoothy enough times, but with Peter's patented Parker Luck the flow of students had been just enough that Ned had to wait an extra two seconds to move and it was just enough time for Flash's Mother to enter the bus.

Now in any logical world, the field trip chaperone would pick a logical seat to help do crowd control and probably not sit with the kid her own kid is bullying, so Peter expected she would just move on, but instead he was asked. "Are you Peter Parker?"

"Um...Yes?" Peter said taken a bit by surprise.

"Is this seat taken?" Mrs. Thompson asked pointing to the seat open next to Peter. And oh man. This was a trap, wasn't it? The awkward moment of trying to explain the seat is saved for your friend who is already sitting with someone else. And her knowing his name? Bad. But Peter didn't want to try and send her away so he moved his bag from the seat and allowed her to sit. Flash sat in front of them in the first seat on the bus. Mr. Harrington, seeing Mrs. Thompson was up front, went to manage the back of the bus. Ned and MJ stayed seated two rows back, and there was a penis drawn on the backside of the seat in front of him. Peter Parker remembered he hated field trips.

Miraculously, with Peter doing his best to ignore the world, they almost made it all the way to Stark tower before his luck hit. Mrs. Thompson tapped Peter's shoulder an motioned for him to take the earbuds out of his ears. He did, knowing he would probably regret it. "Do you know why I'm sitting with you, Peter?" She asked him, in the condescending tone adults use when they ask just that question. Yeah. Peter had a pretty good idea of why she sat with him, and it was backed up with evidence of the snickering Flash in front of them. But he could not say 'because your son is a prick, who gets his mom to fight his battles for him' so he tried for innocent.

"No?"

Mrs. Thompson hummed. "I'm here because Mr. Harrington asked for a chaperone to come help make sure no... predicaments arise during the tour."

Ah. and open-ended sentence. Peter took his chance. He smiled lightly at her. "Well, Don't worry then, Mrs. Thompson! I'm not here to cause any trouble!" And he went to put his earbuds back in, only to have an arm from the seat in front of them yank them away.

"She's talking about you lying about having an internship, Pen-Parker!" Flash said roughly pulling Peter's earbuds into his own seat.

"Hey! Give those back!" Peter wailed reaching for his earbuds, unbelieving that his Mother was just sitting there allowing this.

"You don't need them right now, Parker!" Flash growled and Peter tried to stand and swipe them back.

"Mr. Parker, please sit back down. My son is right, were are in the middle of discussing something important and it was rude to you to put in your music, you should apologize."

WTF. All Peter wanted was a clam bus ride, he had done nothing to warrant this interrogation. And he sure was not going to say sorry for it. "No...?"

"No? What do you mean no?!" Mrs. Thompson asked, her tone rising high enough to attract looks of surrounding students. Bad. bad. bad.

"Um..." Was all Peter had to say before the devil woman was off.

"Listen here, I'm a volunteer. You cannot talk to me like that! I will be speaking to your teacher, but if it were up to me you wouldn't even be on this field trip! You harras my son for months claiming you have an internship at Stark Industries, skip out on Decathalon meetings because of it, and now you think you deserve to get to go to Stark Tower?! Ridiculous!"

Peter shrank back into his seat at the woman's speech. Everyone was watching now. "I..er..really do have an internship here Mrs. Thompson... I don't know what you want from me...?"

Flash was the one to talk next, snorting through his nose like what he said was funny. "No, you don't have an internship Penis! My Mom asked them! They wouldn't even let her fill out the paperwork for me because SI does not hire High School interns, you dummy!"

The bus was silent after that, Peters face red from both embarrassment and anger. MJ had her phone out, probably taking pictures of the crazy crew that had sat next to him. But really?! What was Flash's problem? What was his MOTHERS problem?! How could she not see her son was a prick? "I know you've probably heard that Ma'am, but I DO have a Stark Industries Internship. I am SI's ONLY high school intern and anyone with the right information at SI will tell you so!"

Peter could already see Mr. Harrington making his way up the aisle looking murderous. Oh well. So in for a penny in for a pound, right? "And just so you know Ma'am, your son is a jerk! No, worse than a jerk he is an outright bully! I don't harass HIM he comes to me, he calls me names, and pushes me into lockers, and generally tries to make my school life a living hell! But I see here that the apple does not fall far from the tree!"

"MR. PARKER!" Mr. Harrington's voice boomed from his standing position in the aisle as he loomed over the second row of the bus. "You will be silent this instant!" Yeah, Peter didn't need to be told at this point. He had dug his grave and he would lie in it. "You will no longer be allowed to join us on the tour. I warned everyone at the start of this trip not to misbehave, or argue with Mrs. Thompson, but here you are doing just that. I am disappointed in you Peter. And if I hear another peep out of you-you will have a lot more than a detention to worry about when the day is done, is that clear!?"

Peter, unable to properly speak anymore, just nods. Mr. Harrington then says they will be there momentarily and he would speak to Peter after everyone else got off, but until then Peter was to remain quiet. But the whole bus remained pretty silent for the next few minutes, only murmuring a little once they had pulled up in front for Stark Tower, and still being rather docile even after exiting the bus and having Mrs. Thompson lead them inside. Leaving him with a tired looking Mr. Harrington.

"Peter," Mr. Harrington began with a sigh, "You know you were one of my favorite students, right? You smart, your kind, you always get your work in on time...but lately, you've been..." Mr. Harrington sighed again, Peter didn't interrupt. "You have to forget this internship nonsense, Peter. At first, I thought it was just a silly excuse for when you wanted to skip decathlon practice, but now you have gone over the top. Now I have to have you sit down for four hours in the lobby with Mrs. Thompson and talk to the principal about this."

"Sir, you don't understand! If we can just go inside and ask the front desk they will be able to confirm that I REALLY do have an internship here!"

Mr. Harrington closed his eyes and shook his head. "I was hopeful at first Peter, I went looking to see if I could start pushing more of my more advanced students towards SI, but you know what they told me?"

Ah yes. Peter knows EXACTLY what they told him. "Let me guess," he started in the most annoyed teenager voice he could muster, "Stark industries does not hire high school interns?"

Mr. Harrington did not like his tone. Peter did not care. Peter was told to not talk to anyone and was escorted into the lobby and told to sit in a corner out of the way with Mrs. Thompson, the devil lady. The devil lady took away his phone the second he opened it and made him sit for hours doing nothing. Peter had only been allowed to see everyone again at lunch, where Ned regaled him with stories of how cool SI was and how the tour guide was preaching to them that the new Stark Force Feilds would protect their school and other schools like there's from future disasters. They had also apparently got to build some robots, and Ned's and MJ's robot trashed Flash's, so at least there was that. At least someone had fun today.

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A little more than 200 miles away, Tony Stark got a message in the middle of a meeting. It was from one Miss Michelle Jones. He looked at it immediately because Peters friends were only given his number in case of emergencies. The message was a simple two-line text with a video attached; it read:

Watch this.

Burn and salt the bullies.

And Tony watched. He watched a whole three-minute encounter between some boy, his Mother, and Peter, growing more and more irate at the audacity of these people. This would not stand on his watch. He decided he liked this Michelle for informing him of the witch and the bully son and sent a text back promising her he would not only put an end to the bullying but to 'burn and salt the very ground they need to live'.

MJ decided she liked Mr. Stark too.

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There were exactly 3,145 tiles in the new SI lobby. Peter knew. He had counted. Twice. Okay...so not twice, cuz' once was boring enough, but his point was that he had just spent the last few hours doing nothing. He hadn't even been allowed to do his homework. Mrs. Thompson saying he shouldn't be using his punishment to 'get ahead'. Now though as the four-hour mark ticked by it was finally almost time to leave. They would get back to the school, his teacher would talk to the principal, everything would be set straight, and Flash would get some long overdue comeuppance.

Or that how it was supposed to go. Instead, just as Peter's class was entering the lobby to leave, like a dozen News trucks and vans pulled up and men and woman with cameras flooded the SI front lobby. For the next thirty seconds, the lobby was chaos. Midtown students going crazy, cameras being set up, security pooling in from nowhere. Only the front desk workers seemed to know what was going on as they tried to direct people, clearing away a center 'stage' area. And that is when THE Tony Stark arrived.

Yes, in that sentence the 'THE' is sort of incorrect, but sometimes Tony Stark was THE Tony Stark just because of how he commanded a room without even trying. The chaos stopped. People halted. The camera people readied, hushing whisperers about 'five minutes out'. Pepper materialized as if on command of some 'Tony trouble' radar. The midtown students held stock still. And Peter just stood near his class, debating a quick sudden trip to the bathroom in hopes of avoiding whatever happened next. Because by the look Mr. Stark just gave him, Peter would never get the chance to forget today, even if he lived to be a thousand years old.

"Pete! Pete!" Mr. Stark called out with a grin, pretending like he was scanning the crowd of kids for him when Peter knew he knew right where he was. The students and adults beginning to catch on that YES the billionaire was looking for their Peter Parker. What was this game? "Peter where are you?" Tony then turned to the Teacher "This is Midtown, yes?"

Mr. Harrington could only nod a dawning wide-eyed look of nearly pure shock forming on his face. (Peter would like to call this look 'Oh, Crap- Fuck my life, Tony Stark is here to end me')

"Then where's my Intern?" Mr. Stark demanded, and Peter took it as his cue to spring forwards.

"Here I am Tony!" Peter shouted happily. He had hoped calling the man by his name would have tripped him up long enough for Peter to figure out what was going on, but instead, it just made Pepper snort and Mr. Stark smile unusually wide as he locked eyes with Peter. Well, whatever game Mr. Stark was playing, Peter was apparently good at it too. At least Peter thought that the look on Mr. Stark face was joy...joy with an unsettling amount of 'burn my enemies' grin mixed in.

"There's my favorite Intern!" Mr. Stark said as he reached out and went to hug Peter. The hugging thing had become a bit of an inside joke between them, and now Mr. Stark made an effort to hug Peter 'hello' and 'goodbye' every time he got the chance. Peter of course always hugged back. Even if this time it meant hearing several shocked gasps from his classmates.

" ...Um..Yeah..." Peter said as they broke the hug. Peter scratched the back of his neck nervously. "So..I thought you were supposed to be in DC...?"

Mr. Stark stood straight then and all but glared at his classmates. "That's right Peter, I WAS supposed to be in DC this week, but I got a VERY interesting video sent to me of you on a bus about...say 4 hours ago?" Peter glanced owlishly at MJ, who just looked smug. At this point, a blind person could see the guilty parties freeze and the tension in the room build. "But lucky for me, DC is only about an hour's flight from here, which gives me just enough time to introduce you before your award."

"My what?!" Peter shrieked.

"Your award, Pete. For all your work in the creation of the new Stark Sheilds." Mr. Stark spoke evenly, like what he said explained anything. Since when was he getting an award?! Tony must have understood his confusion because he continued to talk. "The meeting I was in just happened to be with VERY important people and once I got talking about you they INSISTED on coming here today to give you an award- on national television."

On national television. Wait. On NATIONAL TELEVISION!? Peter's eyes bugged out of his head. Wait. Did May know? Oh, they had never talked about 'going public' with the internship thing. Peter must have choked out at least one of those questions because Tony smiled at him and pointed towards the door just as his Aunt walked in.

Walked in and walked straight up to Mrs. Thompson.

The sea of people parted around May as she starred down the devil woman that had haunted Peter's bus ride. It didn't take a genius to realize that May had also been sent a copy of the video and had probably been in contact with Tony because she seemed to know what was going on and who was to blame.

"Peter?" May nearly growled whilst still glaring at Flash's Mother. "How long has /Eugene/ here been a bully?"

The crowd of Midtown students beat him to an answer. "Flash's been bullying Peter all week!" One shouted. "WEEK?! Try since Freshman year!" Another said. "Flash bullies everyone!" Another boy said from the back. "He has been rotten since the 4th grade!" One of the girls said. "He gave me a black eye last quarter!" "He calls me names!" "He threated to beat me up!" One right after another turned on Flash in a flash. At least the bully had the brains know he was screwed. But it was Flash's Mother's face that was really something else.

Once upon a time when Peter and Flash were about 10 years old at an after-school fundraiser, Mrs. Thompson had asked Peter why he had stopped coming over to play with Flash. Peter, of course, had told her honestly that Flash had not been very nice to him lately, and he did not want to 'play' with him anymore. Mrs. Thompson had not believed him then, nor the next 20 times she had been told by various classmates, parents, and teachers alike over the years. But now, facing down May, Tony, Peper, Peter, and a hoard of students telling her otherwise...well you could tell by her face that she finally got it. Her son was a bully. And she had promoted it.

"May-" The Woman tired to start but was cut off before she could start.

"No! Listen here Madison! I am disgusted. At you, at your son, and at everything that happened today on that bus! I've suspected for YEARS Peter has been bullied at school- he's just always been too darn nice to rat out your son! But this is the FINAL straw! The Principal of Midtown agrees with me. We had a very long discussion earlier about just how a very thorough investigation will go on at the school to determine just how this bullying has occurred and how deep it runs into the student populace."

"Mrs. Parker please-" Mrs. Thompson tried again, only to be cut off again.

"I'M NOT FINISHED!" May hissed. "I will see to it your son is punished. I will see to it that he is suspended at the very least. And the second I find the money to do so I will be using those new anti-bullying laws to take you and your son to court!"

"Don't even joke May," Tony Stark cut in then. "You won't have to 'find the money to do so' you will have MY personal lawyers at your disposal." He grinned.

"And SI's Legal department." Ms. Potts chimed in. "SI will not sit around and allow this treatment to our best intern, or any of them for that matter." Ms. Potts then gave a shallow smile towards Mrs. Thompson. "SI also will not be doing business with anyone associated with the bullying of our intern and therefore Mrs. Thompson I regret to inform you, but the contract your husband's company signed has been since terminated."

And maybe someone would have said something then, maybe Mrs. Thompson would have argued, or Flash pleaded, or classmate cheered- but that was the moment the camera crews and press photographers went crazy. Honestly, Peter had forgotten about them for a second, with all the camera pointed at the doors of the lobby versus at them. Like they didn't understand how important Mr. Stark was and how nuts this conversation was. What could draw their attention away from this?

The President of the United States walked into the lobby.

Flanked by bodyguards and stopping in the middle of the cleared area, the President stood as his people rushed about. A podium was rolled in, flags appeared from no where and the cameras began to roll.

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It was nearly a full day later when Peter finally recovered from his shock. He had woken up and not believed what he remembered. So he had woken up Ned who had slept over. Ned had been unsure too, so they ended up watching and rewatching the Presidents surprise appeared on yesterday's news.

And yeah.

It all happened.

The President had started out praising the new Stark Force fields, on how they will protect the American people, and change the way the US interacts with the rest of the world. Then, on national television, Peter has named the reason these force fields existed. The shot changed to the one of Peter accepting his award from the President of the united states with Tony Stark, Ms. Potts, and May standing behind him. Peter was introduced to the world as 'Peter Parker, personal intern to Tony Stark, Heir to SI, and the genius that made these shield possible'.

And honestly, Peter had blanked out most everything after the President had walked in. Watching it after the fact was kind of strange. Like reliving a dream. He had to watch to the part where Tony claimed him as his heir at least five times to believe it was true. When had that even been an option? (When had Peter even said yes! not that he would...) And when it was all said and done the President had thanked Peter personally for his work and told him a new foundation was being made in his honor. One to help prevent bullying. Of course, the Peter on screen had just smiled with glassy eyes and nodded.

However the Peter now...Oh now Peter could see the President smile and just barely make eye contact with someone in the audience...someone right where Flash would have been standing. Ned and Peter rewatched that part at least five times too. And then when it was all done, they just sat there wordlessly for a good solid minute. Ned, of course, came around first.

"Duuuddddee..." He said.

"I know," Peter said.

Because he was Peter Parker. High School Intern at Stark Industries and this was his life.


End file.
